Guard Me?
by Flowerslilac
Summary: Ordered to study a human, Tau'ok picks Jess, the loveable sixteen year old, whose world is then turned upside down. Rewritten and Revamped.
1. An Early Walk

**Title:** Guard Me?  
**Author:** Flowerslilac.  
**Summary:** Ordered to study a human, Tau'ok picks Jess, the loveable sixteen year old, whose world is then turned upside down. Rewritten and Revamped.

**Rating:** M  
**Pairing(s):** N/A (As yet)  
**Feedback:** desired.  
**Characters:** Jessica, Emily, Dad, Mum, Jarrod/Jazz, Tau'ok, Kresh'na, The Yutani Corporation.  
**Beta:** N/A  
**Author's notes:** Written as a bit of a joke, the surprise dark horse that took the cake. Enjoy.  
**Disclaimer:** Well, everything is either hijacked off Sierra, Fox or someone else. Any one you don't recognise is mine. Namely Jess and Tau.

* * *

**Guard Me?**

**Chapter 1: An Early Walk**

_My life was really supposed to be ordinary. Weirdness, anything un-ordinary just wasn't a factor in my life. I had a nice family, two parents together, and a younger brother. I had pets, and friends, and we lived in a house near the beach. Nothing weird had ever happened to me, it wasn't supposed to. I was going to grow up, finish school, marry someone, and have kids. That's all… no weirdness. Was that too much to ask for? Really? _

The clock radio was glowing red in the dawn light of my room. I glanced out the window, slowly sitting up, as I pulled my doona closer to me. What had woken me? I wondered. I looked to the radio again, it was only five thirty in the morning, and my alarm wasn't going off until seven. I took a deep breath, and closed my eyes, listening for sounds. Disturbed was playing softly in my brothers room, and I could hear the faint sound of waves.

"Weird." I said. I got out of bed, heading toward the bathroom to get a drink. I turned the light on, and caught sight of my reflection. I was pale, my freckles standing out stark against the skin. My eyes were half shut, trying to block out the light, but after a moment, I opened them, and reached for a cup, and turned the tap on. I sipped the water for a moment, continuing to regard myself. I was getting a pimple, right there on the tip of my nose. And my hair needed a wash. I angled my chin up, my chin wasn't refined. I had an ugly chin. Maybe when I'm thirty something, I could get some doctor to chisel my chin away. No, I grimaced, that'd hurt. I absently itched my arm as I put the cup back beside the sink. I crept back to my room, careful not to wake my brother, being the nice big sister that I was. I eased myself back into bed, glancing briefly at the posters on my wall. I rolled over, pulling the doona up near my head. If I listened hard, I could hear the waves off the beach, and that strange roar.

"What?" I asked myself, sitting up again, I stopped breathing for a second, to listen harder. Yes, there it was again… it did sound like some kind of roar, maybe some animal had gotten trapped down on the beach? But what kind of animals roared? I was quiet, listening intently to any sounds from upstairs. I couldn't hear my dad upstairs. Get a grip girl, I thought, as I grabbed my boots and my hoodie. I threw the hoodie on, and stepped into the boots as I headed down the stairs and out through the garage. I listened again, but I couldn't hear anything. Maybe it was just a dream? Man, why'd the dream- nope, there it was again. I stepped outside and glanced upward towards my parent's balcony, but the door was shut. They wouldn't have heard it. Thank God! We don't need two adults panicking over some poor creature trapped down the beach. I reached inside and blindly grabbed the beach key, shutting the door quietly I quickly jogged the distance from my house to the beach gate.

"Holy shit!" I'd unlocked the gate, and stepped past onto the beach. I stared down, wide eyed at this small crater in the sand. That so had not been there yesterday! What the hell was going on? "And here I was always complaining that nothing ever happened to me!" God, that was such a stupid thing to do, hey, let's investigate the strange ROAR you heard coming from down the beach, won't that be fun? Tell you what brain, shut up. I glanced down the beach for a second, as the sky started to turn pink with the sunrise. I stopped still for a moment, my neck prickling as I realised that I was being watched. I frowned, shutting my eyes for a second, as panic flooded me. I turned, to go back home, and almost planted my nose into this guys chest. I stared, un-comprehending what was in front of me, until it moved.

Stepping back, it watched me. Through it's masked eyes. I watched it, breathing rapidly, trying not to faint. This… this crazy motherfucker was standing there, and five thirty in the effing morning wearing a full predator getup. How crazy could you get? Well, I suppose if he was holding hot dogs and corn, and speaking gibberish then that'd be closer to it. I gulped, as he turned his head, thick dreadlocks brushed over his shoulder. I watched him again; there were many little bones in his hair, silver clasps also. And his armour was… well, armour-ish. But it was his mask that intrigued my gaze, I could see myself refected wide-eyed in his eyepieces.

"Age." It must have been his voice that shocked me out of inactivity. It had a weird, throaty sound to it, as if it was produced without even meeting the lips. Damn, I thought well for it being five thirty in the mor- "Age." It repeated. My eyebrow quirked, I couldn't help it force of habit really. What the hell? He wanted to know my age, next thing he'd or she'd be telling me that he came in peace... or wanted to eat my brains… I hope he didn't want to eat my brains. I'm sure my brain didn't taste that nice really.

"Uh…if you don't mind, I think I-I'll be going now." I stammered briefly, as I backed up.

"AGE." It repeated, louder this time. I stared at it, was it some kind of paedophile or something?

"Are you some kind of twisted paedophile or something? Because I'm telling you now, that get-up, is so… not really going to lure in the little kiddies."

"AGE!" What was that all it could say? Age?

"I'm..." quick, think of a good lie. "...sixteen" That's a good one you utter wanker. I continued to stare up at the guy. I'd just decided that he was a guy then, being all huge-and muscle covered helped me come to that conclusion.

I couldn't believe the detail that he'd put into the predator getup. He'd gone and put on some rubbery, orange and darker orange speckled peachy skin thing, and a wire mesh, these huge wrist gauntlets, shoulder cannon, I could see that he was also grabbing his spear. Wait! I backed up again. "Don't hurt me!" I said quickly, as he advanced with the spear. Great, I'm about to die, on a beach, with a mad man.

"You'll do." That was all he said, as he brought the spear in front of him. The spear was a massive thing, come to think of it, so was he, he'd been towering over me this while time, at least two heads taller than me. He continued to hold the spear in front of him, it appeared to be retracted, like in the end of Alien Versus Predator, when Lex is handed the spear by that big old dude/predator thing. I touched it for a second, before my better judgement grabbed the reins of my brain, and I took off running down the beach.

"Oof! Fuck." I swore quietly. You know, during the movie, I'd made a joke that during the scene where Lex and Scar go up the massive ice thingy, that it'd be a funny outtake for Scar to land on Lex. Let me tell you, the guy on me might not have been a predator, but he weighed a fucking tonne! I felt myself bruising as he continued to lie there, half onto of me, crushing my legs. It was damn creepy, and as I started to scream he covered my mouth. I considered biting him, but then grimaced as I thought better of it he could have rabies or something.

"I here for two year time. I learn human from humans. I pick first female." Female? What the hell for? Breeding projects? Deep space probing? What the fuck kind of drugs was this guy on? He made a chirpy noise for the first time as if he could read my thoughts and then continued. "Females docile." He let go of my mouth at that point.

"Docile? Who told you we're docile? What are you anyway? Alright, I get that you're just dressed up for some costume party, and someone gave you bad drugs or something, but please," I let out a dry sob. "Please don't hurt me." The guy seemed pretty shocked for a moment, as he stood, and lifted me to my feet like I weighed nothing.

"I am being not hurt you." He said simply. I'd realised something then, staring at this crazy man. That the skin he wore was absolutely seamless, and it sweated, his hand was damp when he'd lifted me up. And he was warm, really warm… almost… alien. In books, they don't talk about when ice goes through you veins, how you hit the dirt, and see stars. They make it all beautiful and romantic. But right now, my butt had just made friends with Mr. Sand, and I was staring open mouthed up at this, this creature. In psych, the teacher had called it general adaptation syndrome. When you get a shock, your body looses control, and your muscles can go, but then, adrenaline hits, and you feel stronger. I felt almost able to take on a bus as I stared at him. "You accept?" He asked.

"Uh, no fucking way." I said, staring up at him. He lowered himself down to my level, sitting on the sand in front of me.

"Your choice; accept and live, or die."

"I thought you were not allowed to kill… un-armed people?" I stared down at the sand, it was cold, not yet warmed by the sun, and little bits of shell poked out.

"I not, get something that would." Oh, like a lion or a fish or something, I thought, staring again.

"And if I agree, you won't harm any of my friends or family, or cat?" Gotta save the cat. I swallowed, watching him. "Show me your face?"

"Yes." He said, as he reached up, his massive clawed hands deftly pressing into the sides of the mask. There was a small hiss; it might have come from him as he pulled the mask away. I gulped, staring danger in the face, literally. As Mr. Ugly pit-bull-man waved a mandible slowly at me. It was a face I was very familiar with, from games, movies and props. It was a face that was living, breathing, and his green eyes blinked once, revealing that he did have eye lashes. But his eyes, they weren't really focusing on me, as he looked past me for a second. "Do you see?" He said, eyes meeting mine. I saw they were slightly un-focused; the mask he wore must also work like glasses or something. Two years of playing alien versus predator and I have to be the one that meets one. I put my hand to my hip for a moment, thinking.

"Alright, let's say I do this, two years, no catches, and then you just leave again?" Zip, nada, zilch? Outta there like stink on a warthog?

"Yes." He said, replacing the mask carefully onto his face.

"Well… do you have a name?" I asked, thinking it'd be something like, Rip Torn, or Bowie I bet.

"Tau'ok." The name was muffled suddenly, like he'd gone to pronounce it one way, and then changed his mind. So, his name was Talc? I was very worried then, what had I gotten myself into? Why couldn't I have just stayed in bed like any other normal girl would have? I could have hidden under my covers, and then by sunrise the monster would have run hiding. Tau'ok continued to watch me, as he stretched out his arm in a gesture.

"Oh," Light bulb moment, "My name's Jess."

"Chess." Shaking my head I repeated my name again.

"Jeece." Rolling my eyes I laughed.

"Forget it."

"Forget it." He agreed, and for about five seconds, my biggest fear was that I would be called "forget it" for the rest of my life or, for the next two years. "Jeesh." He added.

"Uh, may I put down some rules before I agree?" He nodded. "Okay: Number one rule – do not kill. Number one and a half – do not kill people. Number two - please do not kill my cat. Number three – never uncloak near my parents. Number four – um... you can uncloak after my mum has gone to bed. Number five – don't scare me, please, not ever, I won't appreciate it and I may die of a heart attack because you're one hell of a looker." I risked a small smile.

"Agreed."

"Agreed." He reached out to grab my hand, but I hesitated, watching his mask for a second. Well, why not let a little weird into my life… it could be fun. If he doesn't skin me and eat me, murder my whole family, murder my friends, and murder my prime minister. Oh God. I grabbed his hand, shaking it. What have I done? "Okay, well, my house is that way." I pointed to the gate. "You can follow me to my house of you want, unless you would rather… uh… sit on the beach." He didn't say anything, just stood and watched me. I frowned, walking ahead of him, I was sure that he was going to spear me in the back, or randomly snap my neck or something. Actually, I decided that I liked my pale, freckled skin, so he'd better not want to take mine.

"Your room?" He asked, as soon as we'd entered it. Creeping up the stairs was a bit hard, he sounded like a sack of potatoes with legs.

"Yes, yes!" I hissed quietly. "Shh, my brother could be waking up any moment." Good thing it's a Sunday.

"Sleep Jeesh, I guard." He said. Yeah, right, I rolled my eyes, how the fuck was I supposed to sleep with him in my room? My computer chair creaked as he settled onto it. I gazed out the window, ignoring my problem for a moment. The sun was rising, a beautiful pink had filled the sky, and I hadn't even noticed it before.

* * *

When I woke up, it was to the sound of my Perfect Circle CD blaring. I knew I hadn't left that on. I rolled myself over onto my side. My pink frilly bra was floating in mid air beside my head. 

"What is this?" The creature asked. I scoffed.

"It's a hat, duh. Give it back." Oh man, I'm gonna have to disinfect that like hell, and maybe even burn it. The bra was dropped, thank god. And I frowned. Next he'd be wearing my nail polish as lipstick and trying to eat my goldfish. Man, this was worse than that movie, jungle to jungle or something. There was a strange noise, which I recognised from the game as the predator uncloaked. The light bending technology was switched off as he stood there, all giganticness of him.

"Uh, yes, well, what was your name again?" I stared at him. He was wearing most of his weapons. I could see the shoulder cannon, mental note. Watch out for three red spots.

"Tau'ok." Okay, weird name. "You are Forget It." Damn him, my eye twitched. "Forget it Jeice." He corrected himself. Flipping him the birdie I slowly slouched out of bed and stared at the clock.

"Jesus!" I flew out of my bedroom and ran into the bathroom. Shoving the door shut I clicked the lock, and peeling off my boxer shorts and tee. And then jumped face first into the shower. Five minutes later I was sitting in my bedroom, fully dressed for school. Man, I never wake up on time. Stupid alarm clock that doesn't work… wait a second, my eye twitched again, as I looked from the clock to the computer screen, which read plain as day, Sunday. "WHAT?" I exploded, turning to the predator. "It's SUNDAY!"

"Yes, it is the seventh day of your week."

"Oh and now you speak English? Is that it?" I laughed for a second. I was a year ten French student, and believe me, if you can't speak English, it's impossible to learn. "So…" que mood change. "What do I have to do today?" He'd better not want to eat any of my food. Maybe this was just some crazy hallucination, and if I followed along with it, everything would work out fine.

"Let me learn. Take me around." Tau'ok said. His voice still had the guttural sound to it. But, seeing as I'm a trusting person, I had decided that he wouldn't hurt me. Seeing as all of my skin was intact too, that helped. "We need inside information that cannot be gathered by simple observance. The Elders are on the verge-" He paused and stared at me. Apparently that's all I was gonna find out. Great, don't I feel loved? Well, if that's how he was gonna play it I was going to take a leaf out of Dr. Hannibal Lector's books.

"Quid pro quo." He continued to stare. "You tell me things, I'll tell you things." I smiled. "And I've got school tomorrow, so no kidnapping me."

"That is where you learn from your books." His tone sounded scornful. And I have to agree, we spend the best parts of our lives shoved in books. Ha, the mental image of being shoved into a book was making me giggle. "I have also been ordered to protect you from possible harm." Okay, he was so hiding something - why the hell would anyone want to harm an innocent girl? Well, I wasn't that innocent and I did have a very dirty mind. But that didn't affect them what-so-ever; at least I didn't think so. Well, he wasn't going to kill my cat - thank goodness. Hey, where is that evil little thing? I wasn't worried so much about the cat more about Tau'ok. My cat was evil I'm telling you now and I've got scars that make me look suicidal because I patted her on the wrong day.

"Okay, I've got school tomorrow, and today is Sunday my most beloved of days." Quick shut up or you'll confuse him. "So, when I'm at school you could probably observe from a corner or window as long as you don't make any sounds." I probably sounded a bit harsh, but hey, I was the only one that had a predator at school, and it sure as hell isn't bring a pet day, and he was an ugly pet. I stared at him for a few minutes. I liked his mask; it had small groves on the side, and was still had flatness of the original ones. It would scare the pants of any teacher. Pity really. I gave a huge yawn then, and walked out of the room. I heard the cloaking noise as I headed upstairs.

"What do you eat?" He asked. I'm so glad it was early morning, my family out at some swimming excursion for my brother. I grabbed two bowls out of the drawer and two spoons. I shoved a handful of fruit loops into each bowl and then poured in some delicious soy milk – it was strawberry this week.

"This, do you need to eat or can I have both?" It was a weird, really obsessive thing I did, every morning, I mean getting the two bowls out. Not asking if… um… what was his name again? Towel something... Well, anyway's it didn't bug my brother, and it meant I got double the sugar hit, so yeah.

"I have food elsewhere." He'd better not have put it anywhere near my bed. Or my room full stop. I didn't really like having a predator around. I'd organised to meet my friend at about nine thirty. We always meet in the end carriage. What on earth would catching the train with a predator be like? Images of Tau'ok train surfing came to mind. I stifled a giggle and choked on my fruit loops. And five minutes later, I was out of the house and bolting towards the station.

It took me a whole five minutes to get to the station. Damn. I'm not a fast runner, I hardly ever run anywhere, as was proved last night. The predator, Tau'ok kept perfect pace beside me. I hoped he didn't sweat. He already had a kind of strange smell about him; he didn't need to stink or anything. Once at the station I waved frantically at Emily, whose train had just pulled up. She was one of my best friends, kinda quiet when she wasn't on the subject of- oh my god! Suddenly there was a huge dint in the roof of the train. Oh no, no, no, no! I started yelling for him to get off the train, and immediately there was a hand on my shoulder.

"Yes?" He inquired. I opened my mouth, and my eye twitched again. I was way too tired to be dealing with certain people trying to kill the public transport system.

"Nothing, just get into the carriage." I noticed some Mordialloc High girls staring at me. "You see that invisible man there?" I asked. Some of them nodded and then I realised with a brief 'oh crap' that you could. Some part of the light refraction thingy wasn't working. I could see his perfect outline. I had to get him inside. Shoving him straight onto the train as it began to move I grinned at Emily.

"Remember the little joke we had after seeing the Alien Versus Predator movie?" I asked, my voice shaking for the first time. I was really scared, for no apparent reason other than the fact that I had a gigantic predator standing next to me. Oh, I think I'm about to faint. Deep breathes girl, keep breathing… don't look, don't look… oh shit! My thoughts and speech are usually really hard to understand, but today, it was crystal clear. I was having a fucking breakdown on the way to the movies!

"Jess?" Emily stared at me. Her hair was done up in its usual twin plaits and she ogled at the outline next to me. "No fucking way." She said her voice quiet. "When did you find him?" I sat down heavily on the chair next to her.

"It was at the beach this morning." Yeah, that's believable, 'hi; I'm just going for a walk to find a PREDATOR.'

"Do I get one?" What the hell? She wanted one of these insane smelly weird, ugly… creatures?

"You want one?" What kind of a psychopath was she? I stared at her for a moment. For all I knew she'd get one and then make it kill people. And as fun as killing people would be that would be unleashing a really baaaad thing on the world.

"Forget it." Tau'ok said. Okay, this was getting so old. I slapped my hand against my head. What the hell was I going to do with a predator for… how long do the movie go for? Two and a half hours? In a crowded shopping centre? Maybe the movie wasn't the best idea.

"Jess, look, I'm sure we can shove him into some storage cupboard… can he climb the roof?" From what I remembered of the game they could. The beginning scene always had a big impact; you could hear the chilling call of the predator, and then the sound of its weapons being fired.

"I think so." What if he tried to kill someone? I stared at him for a moment. He could sit on the roof, or in the corner of the cinema. Besides, how many moviegoers pay attention to anything but the movie? And their possible boyfriends?

"So he can stay on the roof for the whole day can't he? Does he need to eat or something?"

"Yeah, do you need to eat or something?" What did a predator eat anyway? Human skin or something?

"I am here to watch." Tau'ok pointed out.

"Yes, yes we know that." I waved my hand dismissively. Anxiously tugging on my hair for a moment I pondered two choices. Have him in the cinema, or have him on the cinema. Emily's gaze met mine for a moment, her eyes sparkled with delight. And I sighed. In it is.

"He'd be a bit obvious don't you think?" I bent me head towards hers and grinned devilishly.

"This is gonna be squishy." I told him. And then the flood came, about twenty five girls, and boys crammed their way onto the train. We were like sardines in a can. As the train pulled away I was almost hit to the ground by a huge hand as it thumped onto my shoulder. "Watch it!" I hissed, and jabbing my finger at what I thought was his side. I continued to frown, I needed to figure out where his head was so I didn't accidentally jab him in the balls or something…eww! Gross – gross thoughts!

"We'll have to get him into the cinema quickly." Emily said. I leant to where I thought Tau'ok was standing.

"Give me your hand." A very warm finger touched my own. Jeez, did he have a fever or something? I roughly grabbed at his hand, rather like a mother does to a child and tugged him into the shopping centre.

* * *

The end of the movie came quickly. And I'd almost completely forgotten about my little problem. And I was not feeling even vaguely very guilty about ignoring him all day. 

I looked around all of the corners of the cinema, but I couldn't see his shimmery form anywhere. I left the cinema and headed out to the train-station by myself. I got there in record time, looking everywhere as I walked.

"Now, if I were a predator where would I go?" Glancing at my watch, I frowned. It was already three o'clock. Stepping forward a strange sound seemed to come from where my head had been. I turned, and a wicked looking metal spear head was embedded in the wall. I tugged at it helplessly for a few moments, and then decided, like most sane people, to run away. There was absolutely no fucking reason for him to be shooting at me! At least, I half hoped it was him shooting at me, and not some nut job psychopath. I ducked behind a wall and then crouched, looking around. "Okay, be the game, you are a marine." I turned to stare upwards. There were just four shops near me, the boutique, subway, the station and Woolworths. My bet was he was on top of the station roof. I stared around in panic. I don't wanna die! Aha! I spotted a small glisten on the roof of Subway. Turning, I ran towards it. A second shot fired, a second miss and Tau'ok was visible briefly for a moment before re-cloaking.

"Mum, look up!" A little girl pointed upwards, at the roof, but the girl's mother had already pulled the child away. I stood shaking under the subway bull nose for a moment. Okay, if I survive this, I'm never leaving him alone again. Boy, he has separation issues. There was a huge roar from above me, it echoed down through the roof, and being me I ducked down and curled into a ball. This was not happening. Regardless of the fact that heaps of people were now being attracted to this small strip of shops I was heaved up and slammed against the wall by the invisible predator.

"You are without honour." He stated. Okay, okay, okay, so if I ignore him all day I'm a bad person? His shimmering form shifted, so that it was solely his arm that pinned me to the wall.

"Let go of me now." I hissed from between my teeth. He stepped back, and I slid down the wall. Breathe, okay. I took a deep breath, turning I started to walk away. I'm sixteen; I can't deal with monsters trying to kill me. One a day is plenty fine thank you. Ignoring the stares I was getting I quickly made my way into the station. "Would you kill an unarmed person?" I asked. We walked towards the front end of the station, where it was deserted. Me and Tau'ok were going to have a little chat.

"If you have no honour, you should not live." He answered. I drew a shaky breath. Turning, I faced where I thought he would be, in the light of the station he was almost invisible.

"But I am not armed." I was almost sure he wouldn't hurt me. What's to stop him killing my parents or my brother? I heard a clicking sound, maybe laughter, or his curiosity being voiced aloud.

"And I did not hurt you." Yeah, well, buddy you sure could whack me into a wall. The train pulled up, and I boarded it.

"I'm sorry." I said, my hands folded in my lap. I didn't look up and meet his gaze. His hand once more was at my shoulder, and he clasped it for a moment, almost breaking the bone. Was this some kind of an acceptance thing? I blew a strand of hair out of my face and tilted my head to the side. "So I'm stuck with you for two years."

"Yes." A thought stuck my mind, as my mouth dropped open.

"Hang on, how the hell did you learn English so quickly?"

* * *

TBC

* * *

Reviews and constructive criticism are loved. 


	2. Days and Weeks

Title: Guard Me

**Title:** Guard Me?  
**Author:** Flowerslilac.  
**Summary:** Ordered to study a human, Tau'ok picks Jess, the loveable sixteen year old, whose world is then turned upside down. Rewritten and Revamped.

**Rating:** M  
**Pairing(s):** N/A (As yet)  
**Feedback:** desired.  
**Characters:** Jessica, Emily, Dad, Mum, Jarrod/Jazz, Tau'ok, Kresh'na, The Yutani Corporation.  
**Beta:** N/A  
**Author's notes:** Written as a bit of a joke, the surprise dark horse that took the cake. Enjoy.  
**Disclaimer:** Well, everything is either hijacked off Sierra, Fox or someone else. Any one you don't recognise is mine. Namely Jess and Tau.

**Guard Me?**

Chapter 2: Days and Weeks

"The human language… English is not so complicated." Arching my eyebrow I laughed. Yeah right! English was the hardest language to ever learn, more complicated then French, or Indonesian for sure. You had for instance, words like bow and bow, bow and arrow, and bow to the teacher. How confusing!

"Not complicated my arse, that's crap! Now where did you learn it?" It was simply impossible that a great hulking idiot like Tau'ok had learnt English in less than five hours. It takes humans nearly three to four years to just learn the basics, but… he wasn't human was he? Maybe he had some sort of superior brain power? Maybe he found someone and sucked the language out of them! Ah, this was just too complicated for my liking. Shoving my hands into my pockets I began to stare at where I thought he was standing. Of course he was probably behind me.

"The language of English is very simple compared to that of the Yautja." I turned to face where he had spoken from. I noted with a small frown that he said the last word with a slight accent, a bit like someone saying Italy, and they had lived there. It was getting dark; we were down on the beach, hours after our little ordeal. There was no wind, and the huge crater was gone. I wasn't even gonna ask about that, that could go into my do not want to know about pile.

"So… I'm stuck with you for two years?" Great, that's longer than puberty lasts. At least by then I'll probably have bigger boobs "And according to you I can't just dump you?" God, I wish he was an ugly boyfriend, at least then Dad could come in and be all, 'I have several shotguns, come see!' "And I don't have to like feed you?" My head ached, I needed chocolate, badly.

"You must teach me about your culture." Wow, they obviously don't know much already about the culture of a teenage girl. What the fuck is he on? Boys, music and sometimes school were all that was on my mind. In between being an obsessive computer nerd, and reading as many fantasy novels as I could find.

"Well, uh," What kind of culture did I have? "Hmm, well, what do you want to know? The kind of stuff I like or something?" I sat suddenly down on the low beach wall. It was dark now, the sun had set. I could see Frankston across the bay and to the left, and the de-cloaking noise crackled slowly for a moment as he appeared.

"What do you do to enjoy a day?" enjoy? There was no enjoyment in a school day; sure, the weekends consisted of going shopping and watching movies. But to enjoy a school day? He sat beside me, I shivered. He was quite creepy looking.

"Um… well, after school I listen to music, you know what music is don't you?" I blinked as the floodlights from next door came on.

"We have forms of music and tribal dance, yes." Well, that was nice. For all I knew his music was beating skulls together while dancing naked in a big forest- okay, sick thoughts again.

"Well, I like rock, pop, opera… um… It'd be better if you listened to it." Music was kind of hard to explain, it was a gal's driving force, and her muse. It certainly made me feel better to play Eminem or AFI at full blast when I was mad.

"I will listen to your music." I wonder if he knew what swear words were? It was getting cold now, I noticed. And it wasn't really that dark, but a strong wind was picking up. And my stomach was grumbling. It was probably around dinner time.

"I'm hungry, and I'm getting cold. A school uniform does jack at keeping someone warm." I told him and standing walked away from the sea ledge we were sitting on. I almost tripped, twice. Stupid ledge.

"Humans are clumsy."

"Well, that's a generalisation – do you know what that means you gigantic buffoon?" With a laugh I almost ran into the gate, and grabbing my keys I was quickly walking towards my house, Tau'ok in tow.

"Generalisation, a general view or simplification." He said, and I swear to god, he chuckled as I swung around to stare at him. We had lots of small lamplights in the small court. Seeing as I lived on a block of units, and Terry's house at number 6 was lit up light a Christmas tree, it was pretty easy to see him. And he hadn't cloaked yet.

"I so need to take you into my English exam with me… hey! That's next year, you'll still be around!" I winked at him. "If I haven't gotten you or me killed yet…" I paused. He didn't want to still kill me did he? He seemed to sense my insecurity for a moment as his posture changed and standing taller he shook his head, the bones in his hair clinking against his mask.

"I will be here." And then he cloaked. And I slowly made my way inside.

"Yes, I want the red one." I was sitting at my desk, head in my hands about two hours later, just, day dreaming.

"Forget it." What the fuck? I was jolted out of my day dreaming to stare at Tau'ok.

"What the hell do you want? It's," I glanced at my watch. Stifling a yawn I regarded the alien for a moment and grinned. "Nine!"

"You are tired." Great observation wanker. I've been up all day, of course I'm tired. I'd only met him yesterday, and he'd already decided he was going to mother me. My eye twitched and I frowned. Damnit.

"Look, buddy, as a teenage girl, I don't gotta go to bed until at least twelve, and then I sleep in school!"

"If you insist. It would explain why the human education system is so many years, if you cannot focus during the hours of schooling."

"Fine fine, I'll go to bed, just forget it will you?" I turned to walk into the bathroom and paused. "You can't see through walls too can you? Because I know your mask allows heat sensing and crap." Oh god! Had he seen my ass in the shower? Eww gross thoughts again.

"No." Great, simple, like my décor really. Our bathroom was a nice cream colour, my bedroom the same. In fact, the only non-boring part of our house was upstairs; the walls were the best and brightest blue.

"Okay," Regardless of the fact that he said he couldn't see through the walls I was still… hey… a thought occurred to me. How did they get into the game if the Predators were real? Did that mean that faries were real? And… pixies? Dryads? Vulcan mind melds?

It had taken me two weeks to figure out a routine for Tau'ok and me… On school days, its school, library, home, dinner, beach and sleep. And on weekends we hang out – I have no fucking social life anymore. He didn't really appreciate spending the day hiding when I had friends over. I got the hint after one afternoon.

"Okay, I don't like that." I shoved a piece of paper towards Tau'ok. "This is our ABC's, not funny little scribbles." It was the weekend, my parentals were out! It was raining, and I was trying to teach Tau'ok to write. So he didn't have to talk in quiet moments when I had paper handy… or just as a skill I guess. Writing was always fun, and I know I liked to write.

"Yes." He actually seemed to be having trouble gripping the pen. I guess teaching him to write would be a lost cause, besides, I had better things to do today… well, not really actually. We couldn't go outside because the rain would turn the cloaking device off. The phone started ringing, and picking it up my dad was asking me to unstack and re-stack the dishwasher. Nice.

"I'll be right back!" I told him, great I'm telling the Yautja when I'll be back, what was this, a chat room?

"Okay," I ducked out of my room and upstairs before I would forget. I hate emptying the dishwasher. Slouching I made my way around the bench, and in as little time as possible shoved plates from one place to another.

"I'll do the litter tray now shall I?" As I grabbed the plastic garbage bag out of the draw a thought occurred to me. Where was my cat? Quickly changing the litter, and making my way to my room I opened the door and stared in stunned silence.

My cat and Tau'ok. Oh my god! I sat down on the bed in shock, this was my cat, the evil queen of darkness, who notoriously ate a bible… sitting on Tau'ok's lap. Well, at least I hope she was sitting on his lap, he was only INVISIBLE. God damnit!

"What the hell?" I asked, stupid cat.

"This creature jumped onto me." My cat raised her head to stare at me for a moment. Before curling up again, purring.

"Creature is cat, her name is Gemma," I paused, hey he collected skulls- oh right, the "no killing cat rule" okay. I could not believe that, it was just like the time my uncle Geoff came over, and my cat fell asleep on his lap! She doesn't even come near me unless I'm asleep or singing. She liked to pounce me when I'm singing. Stupid cat.

"Gemma." Oh, so he has no trouble saying Gemma but Jess is just oh so hard? I frowned.

"Hey… how come you don't have many skulls on your armour?" That thought too had just occurred to me. Why the hell would the Yautja want to study humans anyway? Besides, there were so many loopholes. What if they found someone like a baby? Or what if the person didn't agree? Who wants to study a teenager anyway? I'm fifteen and full of angst... It was kind of pointless really. Ask any teenage girl, life is shit until you hit university. And even then, it'd debatable. The cat jumped off Tau'ok as he stood and moved to the computer.

"What are you doing?" I moved into the middle of my room staring at the monster that had just turned my computer off. No one does that, not even my dad… well actually my dad just would cut the internet off. But turning the computer off? And then- My eyes narrowed as I stared at him. He so did not just do that… he'd un-plugged it at the back, but then he'd twisted two of the cords together. I was pretty sure it wouldn't turn on for a while now. Fiend!

"Humans will become sick if they continue to sit at these machines." Rolling my eyes I went towards my sock draw and rummaged through it for, you guessed it socks! I guess I wasn't going outside today. It wasn't that bad, well… it was raining. But maybe we could hang in the garage?

"Fat and lazy," I pointed at myself. "I'm number one!" I was a pretty good example, he probably knew that. I mean, I did try to run away from him when we first met. "How about you help me get fit? I can show you some of the um… training methods of humans. And I get the benefit –no- the privilege of a, um… work out?" I was lying through my teeth. I so didn't want to do anything. Tau'ok was standing opposite me, appraising me.

"That would take years to get you fit." I glared at him. "We could not even work twice as hard, it would just take longer."

"Anyway, forget it; we'll go for a run once I find my runners, in the rain or something." Grabbing a hair tie off my desk and securing my hair I grinned. He was standing there holding up one of my shoes. The other was at his foot. "Good boy, I'm training you yet." I took both the shoes and slumped onto the bed. I had shown him how to do up the shoe laces earlier, but much like writing it was a task left for us humans.

"You are very weak for a human." He was also a great conversation starter, did I mention that? Pretty good with the insults though.

"Well, who are you comparing me to huh?" Striding to the door I turned back with my hand on the door handle for a moment, and he cloaked.

"I have not had much experience with humans. But, you are weak." He stated.

"Show me then." I held out one of my hands, and it was grasped in his own hand, it was warmer than mine. I could feel the mesh that covered his skin; it was rough against my skin. I fought the urge to pull away.

"When you do this," My arm was bent at the elbow. "You have no build on your arm, only skin and…" He paused trying to think of the correct word.

"Flub?" I asked, smiling, and then yanked my arm back. "Okay, I get the picture." I rubbed at my hand absently for a moment and then blinked. "Right, down to the beach we go!"

"Do you not know any other areas?" Oh? Just because I happened to 'like' the beach that meant that I didn't know other places. Shrugging I let us both out of the house, and we started walking past the units on my block. The rain had stopped, and the sun was starting to break through the clouds. His voice was really weird today, like, more rough than usual. Well, maybe talking till midnight all week was getting to him. I didn't really mind, I quite liked talking you see, I almost always took control of any conversation I was in.

"Well, that depends; do you want to be seen from a car or a window?" I asked sarcastically. Quickly jogging the distance from the gate onto the sand I turned and hoping that he was still beside me began to jog towards the shops. Maybe I could get an ice cream out of this… or a drink… mmm, ice cream.

"What time must you be at home?" Tau'ok asked he was keeping pace beside me. I could hear him, a giant lumbering along next to a small fairy. Okay, that just sounded weird. I mean, he was big, but I'm pretty sure he would either get bigger, or there were bigger people in his species. He wasn't out of breath; in fact I wasn't even sure if he did breathe. His mask was on; I knew that much.

"Just before sunset." I'd attempted to give him one of my old watches, but when the alarm went off he promptly smashed it. It was a good digital watch too I was so not letting him anywhere near my new watch. I tried to look at him as we jogged. But, aside from the fact that I was now breathing super heavy, and he was a shimmering figure, I didn't want to trip. "Okay! Stop," I gasped for breath. "Stop please! Stop!" I bent over, head between my knees as I fought off a cross between asthma and a very low fitness level.

"Is that keeping pace human?" One thing I had noticed was that he enjoyed taunting me. In the morning it was 'is that how you function?' when we were at school it was 'is that how you learn?' and now, keeping pace, stupid… uh!

"Shut up!" I racked my brains trying to come up with something intelligent. Finding nothing I settled on a dark glare. "If you were me, and I was you I would so not tease you." I was hit in the face by a glob of wet sand. Yuck! It was in my eyes and up my nose as I hit the dirt and coughed. I could see a pair of shimmery knees near my head as he knelt next to me. One of his hands made a funny shape in the sand.

"Jess?" Geez, if I'd known falling over would have gotten him to say my name I would have done that earlier, rather than get sand all over me.

"Okay, new rule, if you throw sand at me, I get to kill you." Who does that anyway? Who throws sand at people? Only twerps like my brother sink to that level. And I can get out of that with threats of 'I'll go home and leave you here!' Strong arms grabbed my shoulders as I was pulled into a sitting position. "OW!" Screeching as my shoulder was almost pulled out of its socket I jumped up. "God damn!"

"I am sorry." He did sound a bit apologetic. Stupid lizard. Well, I suppose he was a predator wasn't he? And he did have a name… I just didn't like to use it, it was weird.

"It's okay, fine, great, Tau'ok." I said that all in once long sentence go me! I was just glad it was almost the school holidays. It was a student in-service day today, which had been hard to explain to him. And then in three days, the blessed freedom of the Christmas Holidays!

"Human's are also frail." He observed, my wrist did hurt a bit, and so did my side, and my eyes. But my eyes hurt 'cos I'd gotten sand into them.

"You got that in one." I stood, and attempted to brush some of the sand off me. "I mum is going to kill us for tramping sand in the house." I turned to look back at my house and blushed. I'd almost had an asthma attack barely five houses down from my own. That sucked. Forcing a grin I started to walk back home.

"Why do your father and mother leave you home?" It was a few nights after the sand incident, and I was off school for good. I was about to cook myself dinner. My brother was sleeping over at a friend's house, thank god! And my mum and dad were at a fiftieth birthday party. They'd be gone till after midnight with luck. And I could sit down with a bowl of pop- okay, 'a healthy snack' and watch a movie.

"I'm fifteen and my beloved parents trust me not to set their precious house on fire. Or let strangers inside." Okay, but I _can_ be trusted about the fire part. Tau'ok was sitting on one of the bar stools. I was a bit scared that it would buckle under his weight. But it was him on the chair not me. "So, we have noodles, pasta, or sausage rolls. What'll it be?" I know he didn't eat anything really at my house, but I felt it was fair to give him something… especially when I was eating.

"Sausage rolls?" I giggled, yet to explain the intricate details of sausage meat rolled in pastry.

"Deal, I'll cook the rolls, and" I grinned. "I'll cook the noodles too!" Marching behind the counter I pulled down the blinds and then rummaged through our freezer for some of the sausage rolls. He had to try them with tomato sauce. I was almost drooling at the thought. Upon finding my freezer lacking in said sausage rolls I stood, disappointed. "Oh, well, I guess I'll just order pizza then?" I didn't really think he'd mind, after all, pizza was almost as good as sausage rolls, and with pizza came garlic bread. I ripped the pizza menu off the fridge and slid it along the counter. "What do you want?" Not that I actually trusted him to make a good decision or anything, besides, he didn't even know what chicken was until I came along, poor un-educated Tau'ok.

"Salami?" I shook my head, gross!

"Don't worry I'll get us something good." It was a good thing my mum had left me a fifty, I guess she suspected we didn't have any food.

"Salami." Tau'ok repeated. He moved his hands toward the mask he almost always wore, and removed it with a hiss. I think he was secretly competing with the cat in the hissing department. I believe right now she was off somewhere eating our Christmas tree. Stupid cat.

"Salami is a pressed meat that is very spicy and not very nice." After explaining salami I made a short phone call to 'Pete's Pizza.' Believe it or not. After ordering two medium pizza's a large pepsi and two garlic breads I was told that the pizza's would be there in forty minutes. Bloody long wait for a bit of flat bread and tomato sauce if you ask me.

"DING!" The doorbell rang precisely an hour after my phone call. I was in between death and starvation at that point. I quickly paid the man the money and carried the tower of pizza towards my kitchen.

"Food is here." I announced. "And let us not dig in until the drinks are poured." Truth be told I wasn't sure if he would survive drinking a fizzy drink, so I just... withheld the drink from him. But he could have pizza, he'd eaten it before. I had ordered one Hawaiian and one margarita. And the two garlic breads… mmm, garlic. I love garlic. I knew Tau'ok didn't particularly, again, another food I'd let him try. I was quite happy to munch on one, and save the other for later.

"Good." Tau'ok stated, that was of course after eating his eighth slice of pizza. I was caught between glaring at him and staring at him with my mouth hanging open. I hope you get sick. I thought at him.

"My god! The only person I've seen eat that much pizza is my dad!" I'd eaten three slices and one whole garlic bread roll thingy. And drained the whole bottle of pepsi, pity it wasn't coke, that's all I was gonna say. I could eat. But, geez, eight slices of pizza in one sitting? "I think you've had enough, personally, I don't want to see a…" I had been about to call him a predator, but his pathetic attempt at glaring at me stopped me. I was so proud of him. "Okay, you, getting all technicolour on me." Well, did predators even have stomachs similar to humans? What if they had some sort of magical anti-sickness thing? How cool, no vertigo! After putting the pizza's away he made a very odd announcement.

"Sleep now?" Although it was only eleven o'clock I had to agree, it was a good time to go to sleep, and after all that eating earlier I was tired. I wonder what he wants to do tomorrow?

"G'nite." I was already snuggling down into my blanket when I heard my chair creek as he sat down on it. I'd forced him out of the room while I changed and now he was back when my light went off.

I was feeling quite the little social butterfly the next morning. I'd had nine phone calls in the past four hours, all from friends inviting me out. Phone calls were a tricky thing in my household. My brother, in all his wisdom, loved to listen in, no matter what the gender of the caller. And now, Tau'ok demanded that he know whom I was talking to, how long a human phone call went for, and why it had a strange sound preceding each "hello?" I'd tried to explain that the sound was just a ring to let us know someone was on the line. But, he seemed to think that human's spoke better face to face. I suspected that was because in person we had to keep conversations brief.

"Jess," Did I mention he'd gotten really good at my name? Not only pronouncing it, but tones were starting to form in his rough and guttural throat. I was sure I'd heard a question in that one.

"Yeees?" I looked up, I had seated myself on the floor next to my bed, and had been previously sorting through the "to be put up" posters. He was sitting on my chair. He liked that chair, it was blue, and had very little cushioning left. He was always either standing or sitting on it. And I figured, it wouldn't break, 'cos it was so low to the ground. I could see the outline of his legs stretching out and almost touching my bed.

"Do you plan to sit all day?" Hmm, all the possibilities of the day. I could go to southland, the huge retro shopping centre that was a bit of a train ride and walk away, and then we could see a movie! Although, that did require sitting also. I grinned at him,

"We could go see a movie, you know, like the one you watched on that little box in my lounge room." I'd forced him to sit out Finding Nemo last week. That was really funny; I don't think he really got the point of films. We'd been all alone all day, and I felt like a Dory moment, so I grabbed out the DVD and hit play. We might have been sitting on the couch for all of five minutes before he got bored. I could tell he was bored by the way his weight shifted on the couch… and he was paying an awful lot of attention to the wall. Maybe he would like an action flick better than an animation?

"I remember…" There was an awkward pause, and I calmly readjusted my top and waited. "As you wish." I grinned again, now he was sounding like the boy from "The Princess Bride." He'd told me yesterday that I thought about that movie way too often, and that my hair was not a buttercup.

"Well, I'd better find my wallet then." After a brief dig around the clothes piled under my bed I pulled out the tatty thing. Flipping it open I smiled. "We've got cash." And then I checked my watch. "And we've got the time to burn your energy off." I swear, from the way he rocketed up and was at the front door that he was like a puppy. I don't like dogs actually, I decided then, I much preferred cats, and even that was a long shot. I eyed the cat on my bed and then slowly stood and cracked my back.

"Slow human." As we walked to the station he constantly moved from behind me to in front, and then to my side.

"Fuzzy lizard." I pointed out. His step halted for a moment, and then he continued to walk. I felt very clever, I could see him, but only if I crossed and squinted my eyes at the same time. Or I could just look for the blurred lines of his cloaking.

"The train is coming!" A lot of good that would do us right now; I shot him a glare, we were still far from the station. I earned a push on the shoulder for my efforts, and then a constant jabbing. "Move." He insisted.

"Why? In a hurry?" It's not like he _knew_ where we were going.

"The train has left." He actually sounded disappointed. I'd been quite surprised when I'd found out his love of trains. It made him happy to no end to see them, or ride in them! I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and just shrugged. I'd noticed many quirks of his that appeared the longer I knew him. Like a fascination with buttons, if I wore something with buttons he'd be poking at them and trying to snap them off.

"There will be another one, it's one of the great things about Australia, and you know it is the country you happen to be on right now." Sarcasm wasn't really one of my strong points, but you had to give me credit for at least trying.

"There is another train pulling into the station." Good one sunshine, it's going in the opposite direction.

"Yes, but we don't want to get on that one." We managed to walk onto the station platform and I leant back against the fence, "Don't do that!" I winced as he leant back against the fence too, and nearly bent to the ground.

"Sorry." Hmph, so you should be. As the train pulled up I felt a tug on my sleeve. His hand was there, just holding it. I raised my eyebrows and then spotted it. A button. I see.

"Righteo, off to the shopping center we go." There was a snort from one of the punk kids getting onto the same train.

"So, we have a very biiiig choice on our hands." We were standing in the moderate que for the movies. "We can either see," I looked back at the board. "Ladder 49 or Finding Neverland." Personally, I would see either just for a chance to drool over the cute actors. We threaded past the throngs of people moving about the busy shopping complex.

"Which is better?" Hmm, tough question. Johhny Depp or John Travolta? I looked beside me at the glittering predator and grinned.

"Ladder 49." I felt a bit sad to be just seeing one, but then again, Katie had invited my this morning to go and see the other one on Monday. I walked over to the waving service girl and gave her my biggest 'Don't-think-I'm-insane-grin'

"Hi, can I help you?"

"Hello," A quick glance down at her name tag revealed her name to be Sarah. "I'd like two tickets to Ladder 49 showing at three, and can they be on the side down the front please?" Sarah nodded, and quickly printed out the tickets, money was exchanged and then we were standing out the front of the fantastic Village Cinema complex.

"What is that?"

"That is either popcorn or a cone, you can have one if you want, and I've got enough money. And I wanna quickly get some stuff from Mac Donalds to sneak in." We'd never been to the movies before, this was quite exciting, like a first date. Speaking of dates, a boy caught my eye and then grinned at me. Oh god.

"I doubt I would be able to consume either," He did have a point, who in their right minds would freak at the sight of some huge guy with mandibles and weaponry-- I stared at him for a second, eyes wide. He didn't have any weapons other then the shoulder cannon and wrist blades. I have no clue what he'd done with anything else, but I know he didn't have it on him.

"True, but I'm sure we can make up for it with pizza later." I should cut back on the junk food, I decided then and there… right after two quarter pounders with cheese.

"Hey, do you have change for five dollars?" Oh god, the cute guy was talking to me!

"Um…I'm not…I'm not sure…I might, you know…" I blushed.

"Be able to finish that sentence too?" He grinned; he had big blue eyes, and light blonde hair that was in the scruffy stage between long and not long. And he was so cute. I stared at him for a few more moments, and then I was nudged, which nearly sent me flying.

"Right, I've got change, and if I don't I'll get it!" Get it how? God I'm so daft sometimes, if the cute guy followed me to McDonalds, how far would he run when he saw me buy the two burgers? Hoping to god I had change I dug out three one dollar coins and a two dollar coin. Thank you lord! I flashed the guy a big confident grin, and we exchanged money.

"Jess." OH right! Tau'ok was still there too. I glanced around and there he was, right beside me where I had left him. As I turned to Tau'ok the boy walked off. I turned back, and watched in dismay as he linked arms with an even prettier girl than me. Feeling deflated I led the way to McDonalds.

"It's alright, that was an example of 'girl, in shock.'" I told him as we stood in line. Well, I stood and waited, he was shifting feet impatiently. I quickly ordered my food and then shoved them into my bag for later. "So now, we go into the cinema, and we wait until all the little trailers are over, and then we watch the film."

"Odd seating." Clearly he preferred my battered computer chair to this comfortable new seating. I simply shrugged and relaxed back into my seat, and hogged the arm rests.

"Oh my god!" I grabbed another tissue out of my bag and blew my nose. "I can't believe I'm crying!" I knew Tau'ok would be staring at me right about now. We were still sitting in the cinema's. As I predicted, he didn't really like the movie that much, lots of shifting and sighing. I didn't even know he could sigh.

"You cry often." No shit Sherlock, I cry heaps, really I do. I cry when I'm angry, I cry when I'm happy, for god's sake, I cry when we're out of milk.

"The movie ending was sad," I started to explain. "Some movies have happy endings, this movie has a good ending, but I am still crying." I dunno, it just might be that time of the month. I sighed, and turned his seat. The credits were almost over. "Come on, it's time to head home anyway." We passed two acne covered boys, and I noticed with a grin they were staring beside me, at Tau'ok.

"Why do you see a movie that makes you sad?"

"I dunno, for fun?"

"Crying is fun? Human's are indeed odd."

"Yeah." We quickly made our way out of the shopping center. It was nowhere near as busy as it had been when we had arrived. Passing more groups of teenagers I felt a bit light headed. How old was Tau'ok anyway?

"How old are you?"

"I am old enough."

"Old enough to what? Do you know in Australia, old enough means being able to drink? What does it mean where you come from?" There was a pause, and during that time we arrived at the station.

"I am considered a warrior among my clan."

"And is that a good position? You don't have many skulls." He didn't really,

"I do not; I believe that I am considered an academic in your terms." Oh, so he was one of those smart aliens?

"So you're smart?" Smarter than me I guess. But that's easy, according to my dad; dust mites are smarter than me

"I learn, yes." How interesting, I wonder what false information would do to his little organisation? The boom gates at the station began to descend. "A train!" He exclaimed, and for a moment I lost him, and could not see him on the platform. I spotted him on the tracks.

"IDIOT! IT'S GOING TO HIT YOU!" I screamed, as I ran forward. I teetered on the edge, and he was already on the platform, shoving me back as the train rushed past. It was an express already leaving the station. "SHIT!"

"Shh." His hand covered my mouth, and we waited until the train passed. I didn't even realize how far back I'd been pushed, but I was almost on the fence.

"Jesus." I glared at Tau'ok for a minute. "Your fucking obsession with trains is going to get you killed, and I don't want to explain to the police why you have blue blood." I stepped forward, and folded my arms in anger.

"Our blood is green." He corrected me, and with a sound I'd come to know was a laugh turned and walked away.

"Green, woop de doo. See me care sunshine. Now, you listen to me! Don't you ever do that to me again! EVER." I ordered to his back as I angrily folded my arms.

"Okay." OKAY? Was that all he could say? I'd almost had a heart attack, he could have died!

"I would not have died." Shit, I must have said that out loud.

"You might have." I sulked, and then our train pulled up, slowly sliding to a stop. And I was tugged aboard the train by him. The sun had started to set, and it was about six o'clock. God damnit, I had almost pissed my pants. That was the last time I was ever going to do anything stupid, let alone watch him do something stupid.

"Are we having pizza for dinner?" He asked.

"Hmm, I think I just heard the wind." I knew I was being childish, but I didn't care.

"I ask again, Jess are we having pizza for dinner?"

"I heard you the first time, we're not having pizza. We will have some poison apples."

"You don't like apples."

"Sure I do." I grinned, apples were the bane of my existence, and I had taught him well, mango or no mango you should never eat an apple. I didn't really have anything against apples, but you try and explain why you didn't eat the skin of a fruit to a predator one day, and tell me how that goes.

TBC

Reviews and constructive criticism are loved.

flowerslilac


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